“I would say that indeterminacy and loss of hierarchy is not necessarily a negative position … I like the view of art as this no-way-out scenario continually shrugging off these readings from a position-less position.” Wes Hill
“I would say that indeterminacy and loss of hierarchy is not necessarily a negative position … I like the view of art as this no-way-out scenario continually shrugging off these readings from a position-less position.”
Wes Hill
Wendy Wilkins and Wesley Hill’s work fits easily into the Neo-Conceptual approach to art. Neo-Conceptualists are generally intellectual types who dispense with conventional markers like unique authorship, authentic expression and singular style. They opt instead for a post-medium mélange of photography, sculpture, painting and moving image and combine this with a libertarian conceptual orientation. This tends to generate a chaotic multiplicity of images, objects, signs and styles that are appropriated from heterogeneous cultural sources. As a consequence, the Neo-Conceptual production of meaning in art can be complex, diffuse, precarious, protean and occasionally downright obscure!
Such conceptual peregrinations have been accompanied by expanding art institutional infrastructures and networks that have fostered a broader audience for contemporary practice. The whole shebang is managed by a global art system that is corporate in organisation and outlook. Most artists abide by this ‘system’ and abide by the rituals aligned with legitimacy, authority, and interpretation—no matter how arbitrary these may be. One cannot afford not to play this career game, for the art system’s gatekeepers can provide access to cosmopolitan lifestyles, luxury product branding and financial rewards. Brisbane artists Wilkins Hill have entered into this Art World and are undertaking the requisite training for admission into the hermetic guild of art industry professionals. They trained at Queensland University of Technology and have shown at independent, commercial and State-sanctioned art galleries and museums. They have also completed residencies and now live in Berlin where they are developing international... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline